In medical diagnosis and treatment of ambulatory and non-ambulatory subjects, it is often necessary and/or desirable to monitor one or more physiological and/or athletic performance characteristics and/or parameters associated with the subject. It has also often been desirable to monitor physiological characteristics of ambulatory subjects during potentially stressful or hazardous situations, such as those often encountered by first responders (e.g., firefighters, police, emergency medical personnel, etc.) and during athletic and/or competition training.
Various systems and methods have thus been developed to monitor physiological characteristics and parameters of ambulatory and non-ambulatory subjects. Earlier physiological monitoring systems typically included electrical or electronic components (e.g., a heart rate sensor) that were fastened to wearable items or placed in pouches in the items. Individual wires between the components were then fastened to the outside of the items or disposed partially or wholly in seams and the like. Illustrative is the harness system (used in military applications) disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,198,394, issued Mar. 6, 2001, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
A major problem with the earlier wearable monitoring systems or items is that the wires were wholly or partially separate from the textile material, particularly at key connection regions. As a result, the wires could, and often did, catch on or become entangled with objects, and disconnect from components.
To overcome the noted problems with the earlier systems, wearable monitoring garments having electronic circuits and data transmission lines integrated in the textile material were developed. Illustrative are the wearable monitoring garments disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,080,690, issued Jun. 27, 2000, U.S. Pat. No. 5,906,004, issued May 25, 1999, U.S. Pat. No. 6,727,197, issued Apr. 27, 2004, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/922,336 (Publication No. 2005/0054941 A1), filed Aug. 20, 2004, each of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,080,690 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,906,004, wearable monitoring garments having conductive fibers are disclosed. The noted patents provide that the conductive fibers can be disposed in a multitude of positions and orientations within the garment to facilitate connection by and between one or more sensors and a controller.
A major drawback of the disclosed garments and systems is, however, that routing of data and power between components is limited without extensive formation of electrical and data junctions in the fabric. As is well known in the art, formation of such junctions often requires a very complex and expensive manufacturing process or processes.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,727,197 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/922,336, further wearable monitoring garments are disclosed. The monitoring garments similarly include conductive fibers to facilitate connection by and between components. The disclosed garments also include integrated (and in some instances “elongate stretchable”) busses for providing power to components (e.g., sensors) and for routing component signals to signal transmission or processing circuitry.
Although the disclosed garments provide an effective integrated means for routing power and data between components, there are still several drawbacks and disadvantages associated with the disclosed garments (and systems). A major drawback is that the component connections remain complex and, hence, time consuming and expensive to manufacture.
It would therefore be desirable to provide an improved physiological monitoring garment that facilitates accurate, real-time determination of a plurality of physiological characteristics and is simple to manufacture.